HC blames Guj govt's 'negligence, inaction' for 2002 riots

The Gujarat high court on Wednesday termed the 2002 post-Godhra riots as a result of "negligence of the state" and censured the state government for "inaction", holding that it led to an "anarchic" situation.

Passing strictures against Narendra Modi government, the court said, "Even if, for the sake of argument, we accept the defence of the state that the cause of riots was the 'general reaction from the incident of Sabarmati Express, failure on part of the police intelligence to gather such general reaction (after the Godhra train burning incident) in time and to take appropriate timely action definitely come within expression 'negligence of the state'.

"Similarly, the fact remains that the anarchy continued unabated for days ... itself suggests lack of appropriate action or adequate action, if not inaction, on the part of the state in handling the situation," it further observed.

The division bench of acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala, while castigating the state government, ordered payment of compensation for over 500 religious structures, damaged during the riots.

The state cannot shirk its responsibilities, the court observed. "There was 'inadequate endeavour' on the part of the state government in effectively handling the situation resulting in destruction of more than 500 places of religious worship throughout the state belonging only to one religious community," it said.

The judges held that "it is the duty of the state government to restore all those religious places, irrespective of the religion, to original position as they existed at the time of destruction."

If the structures are already restored by now, the government should reimburse the amount spent, the court said.

The high court directed that principal judges of all district courts in the state will decide on the applications for compensation from the local religious structures. The judges will convey their rulings to the high court within six months.

Wednesday's judgement, a setback for Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state, came on the petition filed by Islamic Relief Committee of Gujarat.

IRCG's petition, filed in 2003, sought directions to the government to pay compensation towards damaged religious places, on the ground that the National Human Rights

Commission had recommended it, and the state had in principle accepted the suggestion.

But in the court, state government opposed the plea, contending that it would amount to violation of fundamental rights under article 27 of the Constitution which restrains government from imposing tax for promotion of a religion. It further said that there was no policy to facilitate compensation for restoration/repair of religious places damaged or destroyed during riots.

The court found it "preposterous" to suggest that the state government, in spite of its failure to protect rights under Article 25 and 26 of the Constitution, was lawfully entitled to take a policy decision only to restore the places of residence and the business destroyed in the riots, but not the religious places.